#5 - All Talk No Action . . .

Day #5 of Bob Oros "Dominate your Market" . . .

Are you an ATNA kind of person?  I am too!  However, that is going to change!

Happy Selling!

Karen Whitney

All Talk No Action
by Bob Oros

You know the type. They tell you about all the big plans they have, all the great things they are going to do and end up doing nothing!  Being an ATNA is kind of like buying on credit. They get the "high" of showing off what they bought, but they don't pay their bill.

How can you make the next 12 months the best year you have ever had? How can you exceed your goals and sales plan in spite of the slow down in the economy. In spite of the bleak news you hear every night on the TV? In spite of the fact that growth for many companies has to come from a competitor because there is no "new" business?

I am going to tell you. But first, let me get something off my chest. It's about this philosophy that has been going around during the last year or two. It's called the Law of Attraction. Unless you have been living under a rock, you have no doubt heard about it.

The main theory is that all you have to do is picture in your mind what you want and it will magically appear. Don't get me wrong. I am a strong believer in having a clear picture of what I am trying to accomplish and I believe that you should hold that picture in your mind as your goal. And believe me, I read everything I can find about how to do it better. I have already mentioned this in a previous chapter.

However, there is a critical piece missing. Without this critical piece it is like having the most powerful computer in the world and not knowing that you have to plug it in to make it work. You have the power to make this coming year the best ever for you and your family, but, you have to get plugged in. You have to plug in and turn the switch that will make it happen.

The original "Law of Attraction" was clearly explained by a writer named Wallace Wattles back in the early 1900's. Most of the people who write about it today like to take credit for discovering it, however, Wallace was the one who got it right. Almost everything written since then has somehow left out the importance of this critical missing piece.

In his book The Science of Getting Rich, Wallace has this to say: "THOUGHT is the creative power that will bring riches to you, but you must not rely upon thought alone, paying no attention to personal action. That is the rock upon which many otherwise scientific metaphysical thinkers meet shipwreck--the failure to connect thought with personal action."

More than likely whenever there is a down turn in the condition of the economy it is the result of millions of people sitting around "picturing what they want" and leaving out the ACTION. They talk about it, picture it, don't take any action and then wonder why things never work out. The world is full of people infected with the ATNA syndrome.

In other words if you want to have a fantastic year, DECIDE what you want, WRITE it down, PICTURE it in your mind and then GO TO WORK TO MAKE IT HAPPEN!

Now, back to how you can make the next 12 months the best you ever had. And I am as serious as a heart attack when I say this!

You have to stop setting goals that are out of your control.

Let me explain.

You want to open up 10 new accounts or add 10 new customers in the next 90 days. Sounds like a pretty good goal. However, it sounds like a goal someone infected with ATNA would make. How do you know if you can open 10 new accounts in 90 days? You don't! But you can make it sound good. You can jump up in the sales meeting and shout "I CAN DO IT - I CAN OPEN 10 NEW ACCOUNTS IN 90 DAYS!" And my response to that kind of rhetoric is "sit down and zip it up! You are a professional sales person, not an employee of some fly-by-night company who requires their sales staff to jump up and down, hollering and screaming to get psyched up before hitting the street!"

So, how do you set a meaningful goal? The goal has to be focused on the activities. Let's say you are calling on 30 accounts per week. If you set a goal to add 10 new meaningful prospects and call on them every week for 90 days, bring them ideas, ask them meaningful questions, and most importantly, FOLLOW UP on what you say, you can accomplish your goal. You can match your progress to the precise steps necessary to accomplish the goal. Because your goal is based on activities that you have in your power to do.

However, it doesn't sound as glamorous when you jump up in the sales meeting and say "I CAN ADD 10 NEW, HIGHLY QUALIFIED, WORTHWHILE PROSPECTS TO MY WEEKLY CALL ACTIVITIES AND GIVE THEM ALL THE ATTENTION, SERVICE AND FOLLOW UP THEY ARE NOT GETTING FROM THEIR CURRENT VENDOR!"

If you really want to make it a fantastic year you have to cure yourself of the ATNA syndrome and focus on the ACTION AND FOLLOW UP.

I recently attended a real estate seminar and the speaker told a great story about the topic of setting goals. He returned home from Viet Nam and was told that due to the injury in his leg he would always walk with a limp and never be able to run.

Here is what he did. He set a goal to SHOW UP at the track every morning at 6:00 AM dressed and ready to run. He didn't set a goal to RUN, only to SHOW UP READY TO RUN. Showing up was under his direct control. He discovered that since he was already at the track and dressed to run HE MIGHT AS WELL GIVE IT A TRY.

I don't need to tell you how the story ended. Because you just don't show up at the track dressed to run and NOT TAKE A FEW STEPS. And then, as you continue to show up, a few more steps, and a few more steps, until you are RUNNING.

It is the same thing with selling. It is impossible to SHOW UP at the prospect's business and BE READY TO SELL WITHOUT AT LEAST TAKING A FEW STEPS.

www.BobOros.com